The Heir of Slytherin
by smeghead9916
Summary: A sequel to my first story "The Potters". Harry and Jamie return to Hogwarts for their second and fourth years - with much difficulty, thanks to a stubborn house-elf named Dobby!
1. Discussions with Dobby

Harry and Jamie were once again back at Privet Drive for their annual visit to the Dursleys. Did their father learn nothing from last year, when Harry accidently set a boa-constrictor on Dudley and his friend at the zoo? Evidently not, he'd always had this weird thing about Harry and Jamie connecting with their mother's family.

Their visit this year fell on a night when the Dursley's were expecting important guests, the Masons. Mr Mason was a builder who Uncle Vernon had invited to a dinner party, hoping to get him to buy some drills from his firm. Harry and Jamie were under strict instructions to stay in Dudley's second bedroom, which they shared every time they visited, and pretend they don't exist. The last thing Uncle Vernon wanted was them and their abnormalities ruining his evening.

Minutes before Mr and Mrs Mason were due to arrive they were shooed upstairs by their Aunt Petunia.

"And remember," said Uncle Vernon, "one sound out of either of you and you'll wish you'd never been born."

"Well, I dunno about you, but I'm not spending my night pretending I don't exist," said Jamie, as they reached the top of the stairs, "I'm out of here!"

"Where do you think you're going to go?"

"I'll find a…pub…or something."

"A pub?" said Harry, "You're fourteen, they won't let you in."

"I look older" said Jamie

Harry snorted, Jamie had a very small build and a baby face, while Harry had caught up with him in the height department and his voice had started to break, Jamie's voice still sounded like Kermit the Frog sucking helium.

"Or I might just go to the pictures," said Jamie, heading for Dudley's room. The window in Dudley's room was right above the conservatory, perfect for sneaking out.

"Are you going to come," he asked, "or are you going to be a little gimp and spend the evening in nonexistence?"

Harry hesitated.

"Have it your way," said Jamie, climbing out of Dudley's bedroom window. Harry watched him climb down from the conservatory, jump over the fence and disappear into the night. He'd be alright; he did crap like this all the time. He wouldn't go far; he'd probably just hang out in the park until he could sneak back in.

Harry headed for Dudley's second bedroom, he closed the door just as the doorbell went off and turned to collapse on the bed…only there was someone already there.

Harry sat in his dad's car going over the events of the evening. Somehow a house elf named Dobby had shown up in the middle of a muggle suburb. Dobby had come to warn Harry about terrible things that would happen at Hogwarts and pleaded with him not to go back. When Harry refused, the house elf dropped a cake right on top of Mrs Mason's head and disappeared…so of course the Dursleys thought Harry was responsible. To top it all off, even the Ministry of Magic thought him responsible, as he received a letter with an official warning for doing underage magic. Uncle Vernon had exploded by the time his dad showed up. He'd tried to put things right by modifying Mr and Mrs Mason's memories, but there was just no reasoning with Uncle Vernon.

They were driving around in James's car trying to find Jamie.

"Did he say where he was going?"

"He said something about finding a pub, but he hasn't got the balls," said Harry, "I'd bet ten galleons he's hanging around in the park."

Harry was right of course, Jamie was found in the park, sharing a spliff with a group of local muggle teenagers.

"James Sirius Potter, what on earth do you think you're doing?!" yelled James

The muggles sniggered at Jamie as he walked sheepishly towards the car.

Jamie had his Nimbus 2000 confiscated for his escapade. Harry on the other hand was furious at both his brother and father, neither of them believed his story about the house elf.

Sirius thought the whole thing was hilarious…but even he didn't believe Harry about the house elf.

It had to be a prank surely…who did Harry know that was wealthy enough to have a house elf and would find something like this funny? Harry knew exactly who…Draco Malfoy.

Harry and Ron believed him, he knew they would and they both agreed that Malfoy may be behind the prank. He and Ron had been exchanging owls with ideas on how to get him back once term had started again, while Hermione thought them childish and suggested they let it go.

"We don't want to lose loads of points for Gryffindor again," she'd written, referring to the previous year when they lost 150 points in one night for helping Hagrid with his dragon problem.

Harry found himself hanging out with Jamie and his friend Luke all summer. Luke had been Jamie's best friend at their muggle primary school; both were surprised when Luke turned out to be a muggle-born wizard and went to Hogwarts. Luke had a little sister, Kimmy, who was very annoying (and shit crazy). All she went on about was when she'd get her Hogwarts letter; she had apparently been doing some of her own magic. Harry groaned, if Kimmy was a witch then that meant she'd be off to Hogwarts this year.

When Harry was in primary school she followed him around like a little lost puppy, he'd been glad to be shot of her when he finally went to Hogwarts. Sure enough, on the day they'd received their own letters from Hogwarts, they went round their house to find an ecstatic Kimmy, who had just received her Hogwarts acceptance letter. She ran for Harry excitedly when she saw him, flashing her letter:

 _Miss K Hayes_

 _The Box Room_

 _17 Oak Street_

 _Walderley_

 _Essex_

Harry smirked, why did they always include bedrooms on Hogwarts letters? Jamie had been asking Professor McGonnagall to change his from "The Back Bedroom" to "The Bat Cave" since he arrived at Hogwarts...to no avail.

"Have you seen the books on the list?" Jamie asked Luke, "They're asking for Gilderoy Lockhart's complete works no less, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor must be a fan…I bet it's a witch."

Harry visited the Weasleys a few times over the summer; Ginny blushed and never spoke to him. Harry hoped Kimmy and Ginny would never meet; they'd be starting a fan club. He and Jamie practiced for Quidditch with them (Jamie had to borrow one of their brooms as his Nimbus was still confiscated). Mr Weasley let them all take a peek at the car he's been working on; he'd magically expanded it to fit all the Weasleys in comfortably and had added one extra special feature allowing it to fly.

"Don't tell your mum," he'd said to Ron.

"I'll be right there," called Harry running up the stairs to his room, "I forgot my booklist!"

They were just about to leave for Diagon Alley, were they would be meeting up with both the Weasleys and the Hayes.

Harry pushed open his bedroom door and turned towards his desk where he had left his Hogwarts booklist. There he saw none other than Dobby the house elf spinning around in his desk chair.

"Dobby!? What are you doing here?"

"Harry Potter needs to listen to Dobby," he replied, "Hogwarts is not safe this year; you need to stay home!"

"Very funny," said Harry, "who sent you, was it Draco Malfoy?"

"Dobby has come by himself to warn you…"

"Yeah yeah," interrupted Harry, raising his voice, "you told me all this back in Surrey and I'm not buying into your crap. Tell whoever sent you to leave me alone, it's not funny!"

"Harry, what's taking you so long?" came his father's voice from downstairs.

"I'm coming!" yelled Harry

Harry turned back to where the elf had been standing and found he had disappeared again. Harry stuffed his booklist into his jeans pocket and stomped downstairs to join his dad and brother.

"You took long enough," said Jamie impatiently, throwing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace, ("Diagon Alley!") and he disappeared.

"Go on then Harry you next."

Harry grabbed a handful of floo powder, his mind still reeling from his second encounter with Dobby; he did not quite manage to get the location out.

"D-D-Diagonally!"

He shot out the other end into a very dingy shop, filled with all manner of dark looking items. After having to hide when Draco Malfoy entered with someone he vaguely knew to be Lucius Malfoy, he left the shop as quickly as possible. The street outside was new to him; he was definitely not in Diagon Alley. How was he going to get home?

"Harry?" said a voice that Harry was relieved to find familiar, he turned seeing Hagrid walking towards him.

"What are yeh doin' down in Knocturn Alley?" asked Hagrid, as he led Harry into Diagon Alley

"I got lost…floo powder…wait, what were YOU doing down there then?"

"I was lookin' fer flesh eatin' slug repellent," he said.

As they reached Flourish and Blotts they ran into a large crowed consisting of the Weasleys, the Hayes and Hermione and her parents.

"Oh thank goodness, there you are Harry," said Mrs Weasley, brushing the soot off him "you're father's been beside himself….James he's over here!"

"Oh thank God," said James rushing over, "where did you end up?"

"Knockturn Alley."

"Lucky!" said Jamie enviously

"It don' sound very lucky to me!" said Hagrid

"I'VE never been allowed in!" said Jamie

"Yeah, cruel aren't I?" said James sarcastically, repairing Harry's glasses.

"Hurry it's about to start," said Mrs Weasley excitedly.

"What's about to start?" asked Harry

"Gilderoy Lockhart is here signing books!"

"God, I can't stomach the bloke, I'll nip off to Gringotts while you're in there," said James, turning to Mr Hayes, "Come on, trust me you don't wanna be here."

James and Mr Hayes set off for Gringotts, leaving Harry and Jamie with the Weasleys.

Ginny, who had been talking to Kimmy shut up and her face turned as red as her hair when she noticed Harry standing nearby, she avoided Harry's gaze as she stared at the ground.

"Hi Harry," said Kimmy maniacally, "guess what I saw this morning, go on, guess!"

Harry should have known better to be taken in: "I don't know, what?"

"I saw two squirrels shagging!" and with that she burst into her crazy cackling laugh.

Harry merely groaned. Kimmy was a keen animal watcher (a bit like Luke and his brother, both of whom had a passion for interesting creatures, almost in the same league as Hagrid's), and always wore a pair of binoculars around her neck in case she spotted anything interesting, she had them with her even now.

Things didn't get better when they ran into the Malfoys in Flourish and Blotts, Mr Weasley got into a scuffle with Mr Malfoy, to be broken up by Hagrid and James, who had just returned from Gringotts.


	2. Flying with Fords

The rest of the summer passed quickly. Harry received no more visits from Dobby, and Jamie finally got his Nimbus back…then promptly lost it again when James caught him helping himself to his firewhisky.

"If I catch you again you'll be banned from Hogsmeade this year," he warned Jamie.

It was a slow start on the morning of September 1st, when they finally left they were running very late to pick up Kimmy and Luke. They were getting a lift to King's Cross with them as their dad's car was so tiny it was impossible to fit two trunks in (Mr Hayes had politely refused James's offer to magically expand it); all four of their trunks slotted easily into the magically expanded boot of James's car.

When they finally made it to the station, they ran into the Weasley family, who were running as late as they were. They went through the barrier in pairs, most of the Weasleys went first, James sent Kimmy in next and followed her, when Ron and Harry went to go through they instead collided with the barrier with a loud crash.

"What the hell!?" said Jamie, as he and Luke helped them up.

"The gateway's sealed itself," said Ron.

Three, two and one; the train was now leaving…and they weren't on it.

"What if our parents can't get back through?" asked Ron, "has anyone got any muggle money?"

Jamie and Luke shook their heads, Harry rummaged in his pockets.

"About 20p, that's worth less than a sickle," he said, realising they were attracting a lot of attention with his, Jamie's and Luke's owls all screeching, "maybe we should wait in the car park."

"Guys, the car!"

"What car?" asked Luke.

"My Dad's car, we can fly it to Hogwarts….we're allowed to use magic in an emergency, it says so in section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy!"

"Can you fly it?" asked Harry.

"Piece of cake!" said Ron.

They went out to the side street where the Weasleys had parked their car and loaded their four trunks into Mr Weasley's magically expanded boot with ease.

Harry got into the front with Ron while Jamie, Luke, Hedwig, Keith and Gargamel (Luke's owl) were spread out on the spacious back seat. After checking that the coast was clear Ron turned on the invisibility booster and started the car. They and the car all vanished and started to rise; they soared high above the buildings when suddenly the car became visible once again.

"Crap, the invisibility booster must be faulty," said Ron, heading for cover above the clouds. They located The Hogwarts Express, following it north for hours, until they finally reached Hogwarts. As they reached the grounds the car suddenly stopped working, and started to plummet towards the ground, crash landing in a willow tree.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Harry.

"No," said Jamie, "Look what you did to my gorgeous face Ron!"

Jamie, who was sat in the middle, had fallen forwards when they dropped, face planting the dashboard. His nose was clearly broken and dripping with blood. Ron however had other things on his mind.

"Look at my wand," he whined, his wand had almost completely snapped in two.

He didn't have much time to mourn his wand however, as the tree they had landed it started viciously attacking them.

"Reverse, quickly!"

They managed to escape the tree, but the car, at the end of its tether ejected the passengers and sped off towards the forest. The four boys grabbed their luggage and headed indoors, Jamie did this with much difficulty as he was trying to lug his trunk and owl one handed while holding his t shirt to his bleeding, broken nose with the other.

"Well well well," came a familiar sneering voice, they turned around to face Snape.

They followed Snape up to his office where he immediately began scolding them.

"So, the train isn't good enough for the Potters and their faithful sidekicks, they thought they'd make a big entrance," he spat.

"Sir, the barrier at King's Cross-" said Luke.

"Silence! You were seen –" he held up a copy of the Daily Prophet (FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES) "– by seven muggles! You have risked exposing us to the muggles and have badly damaged the whomping willow that has been there since before you were born!"

"But it more damage to us-" said Ron

"Silence! Sadly the decision to expel you does not rest with me, but I shall go and fetch those who have that privilege!"

He left the four boys and returned two minutes later with Professor McGonnagall and Dumbledore. They listened to them tell their story, but the boys did not have high hopes, they were sure to be expelled.

"Why did you not try to contact anyone?" she asked, "Three of you have owls."

"We didn't think," said Harry quietly.

"Clearly," she said, disappointed, she turned to Luke and Jamie, "you two are nearly fifteen, and I'd have hoped you'd know better! Don't even get me started on the worry you have all caused your parents!"

"We'll go and get our stuff then," said Ron, hopelessly.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Well, we're expelled aren't we?" said Luke.

"We shall not be expelling any of you today Mr Hayes," said Dumbledore, "But you will all receive detentions and we shall be writing to your parents."

Dumbledore and a very disappointed Snape departed for the feast.

"You'd better get along to the hospital wing Mr Potter," McGonnagall said to Jamie, who was still holding his bloody t shirt up to his nose "Madam Pomfrey will want to look at that nose."

Jamie got up and left the room.

"Professor, I wanted to watch my sister be sorted…" said Ron, Luke also looked at her expectantly.

"The sorting is over," she said, "your sisters are both in Gryffindor."

She conjured up some sandwiches and pumpkin juice for them before departing for the feast, Jamie came back a short while later with his nose fixed and joined them.

Afterwards they headed for Gryffindor tower.

"Password?" asked the fat lady.

"Er-"

"Wattlebird," said Jamie, "I ran into McGonagall on the way back from the hospital wing, she told me."

All the other Gryffindors thought their escapade was brilliant, Fred and George were furious at them for not calling them back. They just about managed to get out of there before Percy could start scolding them.

The next day was fairly eventful. Ron received a howler from his mother; it screamed bloody murder at him for what seemed like forever, Harry glanced at the staff table and saw Sirius repressing the urge to laugh. When it finally burst into flames the whole school burst into a roar of laughter, the Slytherins were the loudest. Post owls were still arriving; Harry and Jamie looked up nervously and saw their father's owl heading towards them. He dropped an envelope in front of them – thankfully, not a howler – and another in front of Luke from his parents. Jamie opened the envelope and scanned the letter.

"What does it say?" asked Harry.

"The usual," said Jamie, "Blah blah blah…what were you thinking…blah blah blah blah…worried out of my mind…blah blah blah…grounded for life!" he concluded by crumpling up the letter, Harry unfolded it and read it for himself.

"What about you Luke?"

"I have lost all cauldron privileges for the next month…my parents don't seem to get how the wizarding world works. Do you think if I show this letter to Snape it'll get me out of double potions?"

"Nah, he'll probably poison you instead," said Jamie, "We all got off pretty light, the amount of times Dad's grounded me, I should be serving about 500 consecutive life sentences…they're just empty threats."

"So your dad just lets you off?" asked Ron incredulously.

"No, I just don't respect his authority, I think he's just about given up on me," said Jamie shrugging.

After an exhausting day of mandrakes and Cornish pixies they headed back up to Gryffindor tower, Harry sank into an armchair as a new first year boy approached him along with Kimmy, who as always had her binoculars.

"Hi Harry," she said grinning mischievously, "this is my new friend Colin."

"Hi there Harry," said Colin, "Kimmy and the others have told me all about you, about how you survived when you-know-who tried to kill you and that. Could I…could I have a picture?"

"Why?"

"So I can prove I've met you! And maybe you could sign it?"

"No," said Harry, rather irritated.


	3. Spewing with Slugs

Harry had never had such an exhausting week; he spent most of it dodging Colin and Lockhart, who had overheard Colin repeating his request for a signed photo, much to the amusement of the nearby gang of Slytherins. Lockhart "saved him" by agreeing to let Colin have a double photo of the two of them. To Harry's relief he at least looked like he was trying to escape the photo. He ran into Sirius later that day.

"12 years I've known you and you've never once offered me a signed photo!" he joked.

"What?"

"I've heard you've been giving out autographs!"

"No, I'm not!" said Harry irritably.

Sirius just laughed, "I dunno what to do with you; your head is getting as inflated as your brother's."

"That's slander; I'll get you back for that!"

Harry was in definite need of perking up after the exasperating week he'd had and revenge on Sirius would be the perfect thing. Sirius wasn't the sort to be scared of bugs, but he absolutely hated slugs, they made his skin crawl. Harry planned to sneak into Sirius's living quarters early on Saturday morning when he was still sleeping and cover him and his bed with a selection of slugs found in the school grounds. He never had the chance to carry out his evil plan though, as he was awoken early on Saturday morning by Oliver Wood, who wanted to get an early start with Quidditch practice.

The whole team grumbled about their rude and early awakening. They had barely made their way out onto the Quidditch pitch when they saw the Slytherin team in their green robes doing the same.

"What are you doing Flint?" Oliver asked, "I booked the pitch for Gryffindor!"

"We've got permission," said Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain, handing Oliver a note, "We need to train our new seeker."

"Who's your new seeker?"

Malfoy stepped out from behind the team, smirking.

"Who in their right mind would let that git on a team?" muttered Jamie to Alicia, who shrugged and shook her head in disbelief.

"You want to watch your mouth Potter," spat Malfoy.

"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" asked Fred.

"Speak of the devil," said Flint, "Mr Malfoy has given us all a very generous gift; they're the latest models!"

The whole team held their new broomsticks, emblazoned with the words "Nimbus 2001".

"They make all of yours look like enchanted splinters," he sneered, "Oh look, a field invasion."

Hermione and Ron had arrived with a couple of other Gryffindors to watch them practice, including Colin and Kimmy. When they saw the commotion, Hermione and Ron ran across to join them.

"What's HE doing here?" spat Ron.

"I'm the seeker Weasley," sneered Malfoy, "Come to admire our new brooms?"

Ron gaped at the Nimbus 2001s.

"Where did you get those?" asked Ron.

"My father gifted them to the team," said Malfoy, "Unlike SOME, my father can afford the best!"

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," said Hermione, "they got in on pure talent."

"If we wanted your opinion we'd have asked for it" spat Malfoy, "you filthy mudblood."

Everyone on the Gryffindor team gasped, Harry and Ron were livid. Harry quickly considered the best curse to use on Malfoy, remembering the prank he'd intended to play on Sirius that morning he decided on one he'd seen Jamie use in a duel with Tommy Caine. He whipped out his wand.

"You'll pay for that Malfoy," said Harry, pointing his wand at him, "Slugulus Eructo!"

The spell hit Malfoy in the stomach and he fell backwards, looking as if he were about to be sick.

"Draco, are you ok?" asked one of the Slytherin chasers.

Suddenly, he vomited up a slug, much to the amusement of the observing Gryffindors – Kimmy felt the need to take a closer look with her binoculars and Colin snapped photographs. He ran back up to the castle, vomiting slugs all the way, with the rest of the Slytherin team on his tail.

"Harry you shouldn't have done that," said Hermione, "You know he'll tell Snape, you'll be in such big trouble!"

"Hermione I couldn't let him get away with saying that to you!"

"Harry, its fine," she said, "I don't even know what a mudblood is."

"Mudblood is a disgusting slur for muggle-borns," said Harry, "like saying they've got dirty blood."

"Some pure-bloods like the Malfoy think they're better than others, just because of their blood status," said Ron, "It's all crap, you're a muggle-born and you can outperform every pure-blood in the school!"

With the Slytherin team out of the way they were finally able to practice. Later, as they walked back up to the castle Jamie clapped his hand on Harry's back.

"Well done bro," he said cheerfully, "I didn't know you had it in you. Any time you want duelling tips, I'm here."

"No thanks," said Harry, as they walked through the front doors "unlike you, I actually don't want to spend every waking moment in detention."

"It's a bit late for that," said Jamie, as he noticed McGonnagall approaching them.

Harry was sure she was about to reprimand him for cursing Malfoy.

"You three will be doing your detentions at 8 pm tonight!" she barked

Harry groaned, he had forgotten all about those detentions.

"What are we doing?" asked Jamie.

"You and Mr Hayes will be scrubbing cauldrons for Professor Snape – pass the message on to him when you get back up to your common room," she said, "Mr Weasley, you will be helping Mr Filch polish the trophies in the trophy room, and Mr Potter, you will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail!"

"Can't I go in the trophy room too?" begged Harry, the last thing he wanted was to be alone in a room with Lockhart.

"Absolutely not, he requested you himself," she said, "Changing the subject, Mr Malfoy is in the hospital wing vomiting slugs, he says you cursed him because you were jealous his new broomstick!"

"That's not what happened," said Harry, and he told her the whole story.

"I doubted that was the real reason," she said, "You will still be doing a detention for cursing him, but I will make sure Malfoy is punished for what he said. Your detention will be at 8 pm on Monday with Professor Black"

And with that she marched off back towards the hospital wing. Harry breathed a sigh of relief; detention with Sirius wouldn't be too bad. Even if he'd ended up having to do detention with Snape it would have been totally worth it to see Malfoy puking slugs.

Ron however, was miserable when Professor McGonnagall informed him later that day that Malfoy would be serving detention with him and Filch.

After his detention with Lockhart was finally over, he was heading back up to Gryffindor Tower when he heard a cold voice.

" _Come…come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…_ "

He ran into Jamie and Luke on the way back from their detention.

"You alright Harry?" asked Luke.

"Didn't you hear that voice just now?"

"What voice?" asked Jamie.

Harry strained to hear the voice again to no avail.

"You must have imagined it," said Jamie

When he got back up to Gryffindor Tower he got straight into bed. A little while later Ron arrived back and Harry told him what had happened.

"Luke and your brother couldn't hear it?" asked Ron, "Maybe they were lying, I wouldn't be surprised if it was your brother making the voice as a joke."

"No, it didn't sound anything like either of their voices."

The next morning Harry awoke early and headed to Sirius's quarters with a bucket of slugs he had collected from the grounds. He put on the cloak and crept into his bedroom, he was still asleep, snoring loudly. Still with his cloak on, he dumped the contents of his bucket onto the sleeping Sirius. He quickly pulled the bucket under the cloak and backed away in time to see Sirius wake up screaming like a little girl. He was too proud of Harry to punish him. Harry stayed behind to help levitate all the slugs back into the bucket, as he went to release the slugs back outside Sirius reminded him of his detention the next night, and how he would be at his mercy.

Detention with Sirius turned out to be a breeze though, Sirius only gave him lines to do ("No matter how much of a git someone is, I must not curse them"), but the two laughed, chatted and ate their way through a box of Bertie Bott's at the same time.

Harry recounted the whole story of what happened down on the Quidditch pitch.

"Harry, as your teacher I have to say that was very…naughty and you should be…ashamed of yourself," he said, unable to keep a straight face, "but as your godfather I have to say that was very loyal of you to stick up for your friend, your dad would've done the same. In fact, he hexed Snape many times for the same reason."


	4. Vexed with Voices

October arrived with a cold epidemic amongst the students. Madam Pomfrey was busy administering potions to students who had caught it. Ginny, who had been looking pale, was forced to take some by Percy.

They had regular training sessions and Harry returned from one a few days before Halloween, covered in mud. He was caught by Filch who was furious about having to clean up the mess. He dragged him into his office to issue him a detention. His office was full of filing cabinets containing details of every student he had ever punished. There were cabinets reserved for those who had the honour of having entire drawers to themselves; including Fred and George Weasley and James S. Potter who each had one and Sirius Black and James Potter who, Harry was unsurprised to see, had five between them. Harry repressed the urge to smirk; he wondered if it would be worth all of the detentions to have the honour of having his own drawer alongside them.

Filch scolded him for a while and complained several times about the mess. He emerged a while later with a detention; he had to mop the floor of the entrance floor and the entire corridor without magic ("Maybe now you'll appreciate all the hard work I put in!"). To add insult to injury his detention was scheduled to start after lunch on Saturday (Halloween) and that was a lot of work to do, he'd miss the feast if he didn't finish in time.

He got to work, trying his hardest to complete it as quickly as possible. At least all the third years and up were in Hogsmeade that day, so there wasn't as much foot traffic as usual. He didn't quite finish in time and missed the start of the feast. After he'd finished he returned the mop and bucket to Filch's office, he wasn't there, so he just left them and went to walk away when he saw an open envelope on Filch's desk. He glanced to see if Filch was on his way back before picking it up and going through the contents of the envelope; it was a Kwikspell course…why would Filch want a Kwikspell course? Harry dropped the envelope back on the desk when he heard footsteps approaching. Filch entered the office.

"Finished have you?" he barked, then his eyes fell to the envelope; Harry had not had time to put everything back into the envelope.

"Did you…did you read my…not mine, it's for a friend…"

"No." said Harry quickly

"Good…you…go to dinner…don't let me catch you tracking mud in again!"

Harry left Filch's office; maybe if he hurried he'd arrive in time for some pudding. He was about to head towards the great hall when he heard the voice again.

" _Rip…tear…kill…"_

Harry sped off towards the voice, nearly slipping as the floor was still soaking wet from the mopping.

" _So hungry…for so long…"_

" _Kill…time to kill…"_

Harry sped up, whatever it was, it was about to kill someone.

" _I smell blood…I SMELL BLOOD!"_

He turned a corner, slipping on the wet floor and falling to the ground. He rolled over, there was writing on the wall reflected on the wet floor; he looked up to read it, it looked like it had been written in blood.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Hanging from the torch bracket beneath the writing was Filch's cat, Mrs Norris. He knew he didn't want to be found here. He scrambled to his feet, but it was too late, he heard the approaching footsteps of hundreds of feet fast approaching him. Within moments he was surrounded by students, all stood speechless.

"Enemies of the air beware?" yelled Malfoy's voice through the silence, he pushed his way through the crowds looking like Christmas had come early, "You'll be next mudbloods!"

Filch, attracted by Malfoy's shouting, was now making his way through the crowd with Dumbledore, McGonnagall, Sirius and some other teachers on his tail.

Filch saw Mrs Norris hanging on the wall, he turned to Harry, glaring at him murderously.

"You've murdered my cat," he screeched, "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Sirius pulled Harry back as Dumbledore removed Mrs Norris and approached Filch.

"Argus calm down," he said, "come with me, you too Mr Potter."

Professor McGonnagall shooed everyone off to bed and she, Sirius and Snape followed them. Sirius was still holding onto Harry.

Lockhart offered up his office, which was nearby, obviously wanting to be included. Dumbledore examined Mrs Norris before finally speaking.

"She is not dead, she is merely petrified," he said, "but how, I cannot say."

"Ask _him_ ," snarled filch through his tears, "he wanted revenge for the detention I gave him and he saw my Kwikspell letter…he knows I'm a squib!"

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore.

"Perhaps Potter was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," offered Snapped, "but the circumstances are suspicious, why was he in that corridor at all, why wasn't he at the feast?"

"I had just finished my detention," said Harry, "he knows I can't possibly have done it, he saw me not two minutes before Mrs Norris was found!"

"But the feast was in the other direction," said Snape, "why did you go up that corridor?"

"Because…because I was tired, I wanted to go to bed."

"Without supper?"

"I knew the feast would be over."

"Really Severus," said Sirius, "Harry can't have possibly had anything to do with this, he was just, as you said, 'in the wrong place at the wrong time"

"Innocent until proven guilty Severus," said Dumbledore

"I wanna see some PUNISHMENT!" roared Filch

"We will be able to cure her Argus," said Dumbledore, "as soon as Pomona's mandrakes mature, we will be able to make a potion that will restore Mrs Norris."

Dumbledore finally dismissed Harry; Sirius went with him, inviting him up to his office for a cup of tea.

"Are you sure you didn't see anything Harry?" Sirius asked handing him a tin of biscuits, which Harry attacked hungrily.

"I didn't see anything," he replied, not technically lying. Should he tell Sirius what he heard? Hearing voices that no one else could definitely wasn't a good sign, and would Sirius believe him, or have him shipped off to the mental ward at St. Mungo's?

For the next few days no one could talk of anything but Mrs Norris and The Chamber of Secrets. Harry had told Hermione and Ron what happened, Hermione was now spending considerably more time reading than usual. She kept grumbling about the waiting list for 'Hogwarts: A History' in the library, she had left hers at home, and like everyone else; she wanted to read up on the Chamber of Secrets.

In History of Magic, everyone was trying their hardest not to pass out of boredom when Hermione suddenly stuck up her hand.

Professor Binns was flabbergasted; no one ever asked questions in his class.

"Miss…er…Grayling?"

"Granger Sir. I was wondering if you could tell us about the Chamber of Secrets."

"I teach facts Miss Grayson, not fairy stories."

He started to continue with the lesson, when Hermione's hand shot up again.

"Miss Grover?"

"Sir, don't legends have a basis of fact?"

"One could argue that I suppose…"

He resisted, but when he saw that for the first time he had everyone's full attention he reluctantly told them the story of the four founders, and how Salazar Slytherin allegedly created a secret chamber before departing the school. He brushed the whole thing off as ludicrous and stubbornly returned to his tedious lecture.

"I always knew Slytherin was loony," said Ron between classes, "I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me a million galleons!"

Harry's stomach dropped, he had never told a soul that the hat had considered putting him there, unless you count when he pranked his dad and convinced him he had been put in Slytherin.

Soon, the entire school knew the story of The Chamber of Secrets, and rumours were flying that Harry was Slytherin's heir.

The trio were sure they knew who the real heir was, Malfoy!

"You heard him," said Ron, "You'll be next mudbloods!"

"His whole family have been in Slytherin for generations," said Harry, "I'll bet they're descendants of Slytherin, they've probably been passing down a key from father to son for centuries!"

"We'll have a hard time proving it," said Ron.

"There might be a way," said Hermione, "but it'll be dangerous and I'll need a book from the restricted section."

Hermione had managed to flatter a permission slip out of Lockhart for the book she wanted. She returned from the library with a book titled "Moste Potente Potions": they read it in a girl's bathroom. This was Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, so they were guaranteed privacy; no one went in there if they could avoid it.

They could see why the book was restricted; many of the potions were horrible. Hermione found the chapter on Polyjuice Potion, her face fell.

"I've never seen a more complicated potion," she said, "and we'll have to steal some of these ingredients from Snape's private stores. It'll take about a month to brew."

"But Malfoy could attack half of the school by then!"

"I know," she said, "but it's the best plan we've got."


	5. Bolting With Bludgers

The day of the first Quidditch match came, most of the school were supporting Gryffindor; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were eager to see Slytherin beaten.

Flint and Wood shook hands and the match began, commentated as always by Lee Jordan.

"And it looks like the Slytherins waste no time in showing of the speed of their bribes – I mean brooms…"

WHOOSH! Harry narrowly avoided a bludger that had made a beeline for his head.

"Close one Harry!" yelled George, whacking the bludger towards Adrian Pucey, but it changed direction halfway there and came pelting back towards Harry. George tried again hitting it in the direction of Malfoy; once again it changed direction, heading back to Harry.

Meanwhile, the marauders were watching in the stands.

"Someone's been pissing about with that bludger," said Sirius incredulously, he raised his wand to stop it.

"No, you could hit Harry or one of the beaters," said James, "why isn't Madam Hooch calling a time out?"

Meanwhile the twins kept trying to get rid of the bludger, but it was no use, the bludger only had eyes for Harry.

"One of those scummy Slytherins has tampered with this bludger!" roared Fred

The twins managed to signal for a time out. They told Wood how the bludger wouldn't leave Harry alone, and how they suspected the Slytherins were behind it.

"But they've been locked up in Madam Hooch's office," said Wood

"Listen, let me deal with the bludger on my own," said Harry, "I'll never catch the snitch with you two hanging around me.

"Harry, that fucking thing will take your head off," said Jamie

"We should ask for an inquiry," said Alicia.

"But we'd have to forfeit," said Harry, "I can handle this thing on my own, the rest of you get back to the game."

The game was back in full swing, Fred and George dealt with the normal bludger while Harry fended for himself.

"And we're off again, Flint's in possession of the Quaffle; he passes to Pucey who passes to Caine. Caine is about to score…saved by Wood, Gryffindor's Johnson in possession, she passes to Potter he passes back to Johnson….intercepted by Caine, Caine scores, Slytherin leading 70-0. Caine back in possession…he passes to Pucey…intercepted by Spinnet! Spinnet in possession, she passes to Potter, back to Spinnet, she passes to Johnson, back to Potter…OUCH that must have hurt, bludger to the head by Slytherin's Bole, Potter just manages not to fall off his broom!"

Tommy Caine, one of Slytherin's chasers jeered at Jamie. Jamie made a very rude gesture to him with his fingers.

"Time you learned some manners Potter," spat Tommy, who deliberately collided with Jamie, nearly knocking him out of the sky. Jamie managed to grab onto his broom with one hand and hoist himself back up.

Madam Hooch awarded Jamie a penalty shot, which he scored…the only score they had during the whole match.

Meanwhile Harry was doing everything he could to try and avoid the bludger that seemed magnetically attracted to him. He looped and swooped, spiralled, zigzagged, and rolled, very aware of how stupid he must have looked.

"Training for the ballet Potter," sneered Malfoy

Harry glared at Malfoy, certain it was he and his Slytherin cronies who had done this…then he saw it, the snitch, glittering right next to Malfoys fat head; he hadn't noticed it.

Harry paused; he didn't want to make Malfoy aware of the snitch. WHAM! He should not have hesitated; the bludger smashed into his side, breaking his arm. Harry dived before the bludger could come back for more, much to Malfoys bewilderment. Harry's fingers closed around the snitch, he had caught it right from under Malfoy's nose! Harry headed for the ground trying hard not to pass out; he hit the ground, rolling off his broom. He fainted. He came to and found Lockhart bent over him, beaming down at him. Flashes of light told him that Colin was photographing this.

"No, not you…" he mumbled.

"Poor boy's delirious," said Lockhart, pointing his wand at Harry's broken arm, "don't worry Harry, this won't hurt a bit!"

"NO!"

It was too late, the pain was gone from Harry's arm, but that wasn't all; there weren't any bones left!

Lockhart was stuttering excuses when the marauders streaked onto the field.

"What the hell have you done to him?!" roared James, helping Harry up.

"I was fixing his arm…and see…he's no longer in any pain. The bones are no longer broken."

"That's because there aren't any bones left to BE broken," said James through gritted teeth.

Colin continued to snap pictures as James escorted Harry off the pitch, while Kimmy stood next to him gawping.

"Cut it out Colin!" yelled Harry angrily.

Madam Pomfrey was livid.

"He should have come straight to me," she said, approaching Harry's bed with a bottle of skele-gro, "Mending bones is easy, but growing them back…that's going to be painful."

"I wonder what was up with that bludger," said Remus, after Harry had taken the potion, which burned his throat as he swallowed.

"Probably a Slytherin prank," said Sirius, "McGonagall and Hooch are going to be looking into it."

"Caine's got one coming his way in their next match," muttered Jamie, who had followed them up, still wearing his wet, muddy robes and clutching his Nimbus.

Harry and Sirius snorted.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that," said James

Just then Hermione, Ron and the rest of the team came in, all still in their Quidditch robes.

"That was brilliant Harry," said Wood, "one of your better wins!"

"Amazing Harry," said George, "Flint is pissed off at Malfoy; you caught the snitch right from under his nose!"

"I want to know how Draco fixed that bludger," said Hermione darkly

"It was Tommy I tell you," said Jamie, "he's a scumbag!"

"You're just angry 'cos he smashed into you," said Angelina.

"He nearly killed me Angie," said Jamie, with a slight whine in his voice and puppy dog eyes, "see the bump? Come kiss it better for me would you?"

"Don't call me Angie and I wouldn't care if you'd lost all your limbs; I'm never kissing any part of you better, I'll give you another bump if you don't watch it!"

"You tell him Angie," said Fred putting his arm around her, "you like me best don't you!"

Angelina had a look of pure evil on her face, and then her scowl turned into a smirk "Remove the arm or Madam Pomfrey will have two sets of bones to regrow."

Madam Pomfrey shooed Ron, Hermione and the team away, Jamie got up to leave with them.

"I want a word with you outside first," said James, he followed Jamie out into the corridor, "you have got to stop getting into these fights with people; you could have been killed today!"

"Tommy started it," said Jamie

"The way I saw it was you just had to stick your fingers up at him," said James.

"He's a psychopath."

"Then don't piss him off," said James, "I had a letter from McGonagall the other about how you cast an engorgement charm at his feet for, apparently, no reason when you were walking past him."

"He's been telling anyone who'll listen that Harry's the heir of Slytherin."

"The heir of what?"

"Nothing."

"What about the heir of Slytherin?"

"I thought you already knew," said Jamie, "I thought Sirius might've told you."

"Told me what?"

Just then, Sirius and Remus left the hospital wing.

"Is everything alright?" asked James anxiously

"Yeah," said Sirius, "she's just given Harry a potion to help him sleep, he's out cold."

"Is there something you haven't been telling me?"

Sirius thought for a moment, "Uuh…Potion. Sleeping. No, that's it."

"Not that," said James, "what's all this heir of Slytherin business about?"

"Oooh…that," said Sirius, "let's go to my office, Jamie, bugger off."

"No, you can come too," said James to Jamie, "I want answers."

Once inside Sirius's office, Sirius and Jamie began telling him about what happened to Mrs Norris and the writing on the wall.

"But why do all the students thing Harry is Slytherin's heir?"

"It's just a stupid rumour," said Sirius, "because Harry was there when Mrs Norris was found. Filch accused him immediately of course, even though he knew he couldn't possibly have done it; Harry was in his office two minutes before they found Mrs Norris."

"So The Chamber of Secrets is open, but no one thought to mention to me?" said James bitterly, "Only if there's a monster running around attacking children in the school that my children attend, I'd prefer to know."

"The Chamber of Secrets hasn't been opened," said Sirius, "It's just someone's sick idea of a prank, and no children have been attacked, just the cat."

"But why did no one tell me?" asked James, "If Harry's being accused, then I need to have a word with –"

"He's not being accused," interrupted Sirius, "Dumbledore has already said he isn't a suspect, this is all just kids' tittle-tattle; it will blow over."

Later that night Harry awoke with a start; he heard a voice, it was Dobby.

"Harry Potter should not have come back to school. Dobby warned Harry Potter. Why, didn't he go back to school when he missed the train?"

"How did you know I missed the train?"

Dobby's lip trembled.

"It was you? You stopped the barrier letting us through."

"Dobby had to punish himself for that, but he didn't care, for he thought Harry Potter was safe!"

"You'd better get out of here before my bones grow back and I strangle you!"

"Harry Potter must go home. Dobby thought his bludger would – "

"Your bludger? You made the bludger chase after me like that."

"Dobby had to make Harry Potter see that Hogwarts isn't safe, now that history is to repeat itself, now The Chamber of Secrets is open again – "

"You mean this has all happened before? But I'm not Muggle born, how can I be in danger?"

Dobby grabbed the bottle of skele-gro from the nightstand and started beating himself with it ("Bad Dobby!")

Harry seized the bottle from Dobby with his good arm.

"Tell me Dobby, when did this happen before? Who was responsible?"

"Please ask no more sir. Dobby mustn't tell. Please go home."

"I can't go home, some of my friends are muggle-born, they'll first in line to be attacked, and we've got to stop that from happening!"

"Harry Potter is so brave. He would risk his life for his friends. But please, he must save himself, please go –"

Dobby froze, there were footsteps approaching.

"Dobby must go," he said, disapparating.

The approaching footsteps got closer. Dumbledore and McGonagall entered, levitating what looked like two statues. They gently dropped them on two adjoining beds. Harry feigned sleep.

"What happened?" asked Madam Pomfrey, entering the room.

"There's been another attack; Minerva found them on the stairs. We think they may have been trying to sneak up here to visit Potter."

Harry's stomach gave a horrible lurch. He slowly and carefully turned over to see who the victims were.

It was Colin and Kimmy. Colin was still holding up his camera and Kimmy had her binoculars pressed against her eyes with one hand, holding her wand up with the other, her mouth was wide open with terror.

"Petrified?"

"Yes," said McGonagall, "I hate to think what would have happened if Albus hadn't found them."

Dumbledore wrenched Colin's camera out of his grip, opening the back, a jet of steam shot out.

"Melted…"

"What does this mean Albus?"

"It means that The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again."


	6. Suspicions with Serpents

The next day when Madam Pomfrey finally released Harry, he found Ron and Hermione in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, working on the Polyjuice Potion. Harry told them about Dobby's visit and everything he'd told him.

When they went back up to Gryffindor tower, Harry was greeted with a punch in the face that projected him to the floor and knocked his glasses off. When he looked up he could see the blurred form of Luke.

"Where do you get off attacking my sister?!" He demanded, pinning Harry to the floor and pointing his wand to his face.

"I didn't," said Harry, trying to push him off, "how could you even think that?"

Harry had known Luke for a long time. How could he think he'd be capable of attacking anyone, let alone Kimmy? Harry had been the only kid at their muggle school who was actually nice to Kimmy, who was bullied unmercifully for her eccentricity.

"All I know is that she and Colin have been pestering you since day one and you were at the scene of the crime last time!"

Behind him, Harry saw Jamie approach and raise his wand.

"Get off him or I'm going to have to hex you," he snarled.

Luke got off Harry and turned to face Jamie, raising his own wand. Harry felt about for his glasses and shoved them back on his face. Jamie shot a stinging hex a Luke, who dodged it.

"Volatilis Lutum!" yelled Luke, Jamie deflected this with a shield charm

"Flipendo!" yelled Jamie, Luke was thrown backwards into the wall, the watching students rushed out of the way.

Luke scrambled to his feet "Tarantallegra!"

Jamie started dancing uncontrollably; he pointed his wand to his out of control legs, "Finite Incantatem!"

"Rictusempra!" yelled Luke, Jamie deflected the spell

"Expelliarmus!" roared Jamie, Luke's wand flew out of his hand.

Percy stormed into the room, angry at all the commotion, by this time Jamie and Luke had abandoned their wands and were fighting like muggles; Fred and George were trying to pull them apart.

"Protego!" Percy cast a shield charm between them, forcing them to stop, "Cut out this ridiculous display at once! Five points from Gryffindor for each of you and if I catch you at it ever again it will be fifty! Luke, go to the hospital wing you're a mess!"

Luke, sporting a broken nose, angrily pushed his blonde hair out of his bloody face, shoved his glasses back on and stormed out through the portrait hole.

Harry had never seen Jamie and Luke like this; he couldn't even remember them ever having the slightest falling out. Luke now treated both Jamie and Harry like they were invisible. Fred, George and Lee refused to take sides in the matter, which made Jamie furious at them and he refused to speak to any of them. Jamie spent a lot of time either alone or tagging along with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Harry had never realised before, but Jamie was rather unpopular. Most of the older students ignored him, and those that didn't hated him; the Gryffindors in particular hated him for the number of points he lost them (Fred and George had lost more between them, but they were much more likeable). Some of the others in his year had tried to be friendly with him in the first year, but soon found his desire for duelling and sneaking into the forest tiresome and lost interest when he never wanted to do anything normal like hanging out. The younger students had been, at first, enamoured by his reputation for trouble…but they soon learned that Jamie was not pleasant company and was not above threatening to hex first years if they annoyed him.

Jamie hadn't even been interested in befriending Lee and the Weasley twins at first, he only did in the end because Luke, his best friend, wanted to and he soon warmed up to them and came to value their friendship.

Mr and Mrs Hayes had been summoned to the school so Kimmy's condition could be explained to them. Luke had emerged from the meeting with his parents with his face flushed, looking like he had been crying.

The attack on Colin and Kimmy made Harry, Ron and Hermione even more determined to complete the Polyjuice Potion and question Malfoy.

A week later a notice went up for a new duelling club. It met at 8 pm in the great hall, it seemed like most of the school had turned up. The house tables had vanished, replaced by a stage along one wall.

"Who will be teaching us?" wondered Hermione, "I heard Flitwick was a duelling champion when he was younger, may it'll be him."

"As long it's not –" Harry paused as he saw Lockhart step onto the stage, he groaned, "Lockhart."

"Let me introduce my assistants," he said, as Sirius and Snape both appeared on the stage, "Professor Snape and Professor Black have agreed to help me here today as apparently they know a teeny tiny bit about duelling!"

Harry was sure both Sirius and even Snape were about a thousand times more competent to teach duelling…or anything for that matter.

"Professor Snape here has kindly agreed to help me with a little demonstration before we begin," Lockhart continued, "But don't worry boys and girls, I'll go easy on him; you'll still have your potions master in one-piece when I'm finished with him!"

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed then raised their wands.

"One…two…three –"

"Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted off his feet and smashed into a wall. Many of the girls squealed, hoping he was alright.

"Who bloody cares," muttered Ron

"That was a disarming charm," announced Lockhart as he pulled himself to his feet, "I could have easily blocked that of course, but I wanted you all to see the effects of the spell….uh…but enough demonstrations, I want you all to get into pairs please!"

"Time to split up the dream team," said Snape, forcing Ron to pair up with Seamus, Hermione with Millicent Bulstrode and Harry with Malfoy. Jamie had been about to partner with Luke before remembering that he hated him now and watched him partner with Lee, Snape swooped in and forced Jamie to partner with Tommy.

"Face your partner and bow," said Lockhart, "Then wands at the ready, when I count to three I want you to practice disarming your opponent, ONLY disarming. One…two…three –"

It was absolute chaos, no one obeyed Lockhart's orders to disarm only; hexes and jinxes were shooting left and right. Lockhart's attempts at getting them to stop were futile; Snape and Sirius took charge. By the time order had been mostly restored Harry legs were dancing uncontrollably, Jamie was lying on the floor, stiff, as a result of Tommy's full body-bind curse and Millicent had Hermione in a headlock.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, "Let's have a volunteer pair…erm…"

"How about Potter and Malfoy?" interrupted Snape

"Excellent idea," said Lockhart, gesturing Harry towards him, "now Harry, when Draco points his wand at you, do this…"

Lockhart made flourishing movements with his wand before dropping it.

"Whoops…"

"May I, Gilderoy?" interrupted Sirius, who bent down and whispered the instructions for a shield charm into Harry's ear.

"Three…two…one…"

Harry raised his wand and prepared to perform the shield charm Sirius had just explained.

"Serpensortia!" bellowed Malfoy, his wand exploded and a huge snake shot out from the end.

"Don't move Potter, I'll get rid of it," said Snape

"No allow me," said Lockhart, brandishing his wand. There was a loud crack and the snake rose several feet into the air, then landing back on the ground…all he had done was make it angry. Hissing furiously, the snake slithered towards Justin, ready to strike.

"Leave him alone!" yelled Harry to the snake, which yielded and slumped to the floor, its eyes now on Harry. Harry looked up at Justin, expecting him to look relieved, but instead he looked at Harry angrily.

"What do you think you're playing at?" he said, storming out of the room.

"Vipera Evanesca!" said Snape, and the snake vanished.

The whole room's eyes were on Harry…this was why he kept this secret, as if he wasn't stared at and whispered about enough!

Sirius quickly ushered Harry out of the room and up to his office, closely followed by Ron, Hermione and Jamie.

"Why didn't you ever tell me you were a parselmouth?" demanded Jamie

"It's not exactly something I wanted to share," said Harry, "it's dark magic isn't it?"

"No, there's plenty of good people who are parselmouths," said Sirius

"Like who?" said Harry

Sirius paused for a moment, looking stumped.

"Exactly," said Harry.

"Did you know the snake would understand you?" asked Hermione.

"Well, yeah…but that was only the second time I've ever spoken to a snake."

"Wait," said Jamie, smirking, "that time you set the boa constrictor on Dudley…?"

"Yeah…" said Harry.

"Wicked."

Sirius was sat at his desk looking worried, "This is bad."

"But if I hadn't told that snake to leave Justin alone –"

"That's what you said to it?" asked Ron.

"You were there didn't you hear me?"

"I heard you speaking snake language!"

"Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth," said Sirius, interrupting their argument, "that's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a snake. I know you haven't got anything to with this Harry, but this is only going to add to the rumours, people will think you're a descendant of Slytherin."

"But I'm not!"

"You have no way of proving that."

Herbology was cancelled the next day due to weather conditions. Harry sought out Justin to explain himself. Instead he found the other Hufflepuffs in the library.

"So anyway," he heard one of them say, "I told Justin to stay in the common room, he'd best keep a low profile seeing as Potter has marked him as his next victim."

"So you think it's really Potter then Ernie?" asked Hannah

"Have you ever heard of a decent parselmouth?" asked Ernie, "Slytherin himself was one; they called him serpent-tongue! Remember what was written on the wall? 'Enemies of the Heir, Beware'. Filch gives him a detention, next thing we know, Mrs Norris is attacked. Those first years Colin Creevey and Kimmy Hayes kept annoying him, both attacked! I heard even Kimmy's older brother suspects him, and they've known each other for years!"

Harry stepped out from behind the bookcase; the Hufflepuffs all looked at him, terrified.

"I'm looking for Justin. I want to explain what REALLY happened at the duelling club."

"We were there," said Ernie, "We saw you chasing the snake towards Justin."

"I didn't chase it towards him; I told it to back off!"

"It was a near miss…and in case you're getting any ideas, I'm pure-blood so –"

"I don't care about your blood, why would I want to attack muggle-borns?" he said angrily, "My mum was a muggle-born!"

"I heard you hate those muggle relatives of yours!"

"I'd like to see you spend two minutes in their company and not hate them!"

Harry stormed out of the library, almost walking into Sirius and Hagrid who were stood in the corridor talking; the guilty look on their faces told Harry they'd been talking about him.

Harry turned to storm away.

"Harry…" called Sirius

"I have to get to class," said Harry, not turning around. He stomped up the stairs and turned a corner, nearly tripping over the petrified form of Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Next to him was Nearly Headless Nick, immobile and floating horizontally, his head hanging off.

He had to get out of here; no one would believe he had nothing to do with this.

"Look, it's potty wee Potter," guffawed peeves, appearing though a wall, "why's potty lurking –" he stopped when he saw Nick and Justin.

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

The classroom doors flew open and students flooded the corridors, Harry found himself pinned flat against the wall.

"Caught in the act!" yelled Ernie, as soon as Professor McGonagall had restored order.

"Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, you're killing off students, you think it's good fun —"

"That will do!" said McGonagall sharply.

A soon as Nick and Justin were transported to the hospital wing, Harry was escorted to Dumbledore's office by McGonnagall.


End file.
